I did it! I made it through the hospital stay! Can you believe that other lady wanted to be released that day, too! Uuuggghhh. I really wonder if she’s gonna handle this life altering change well.
My dad came that day to see me and take my mom home to Austin. My husband and I would rough it together at the hotel until Tuesday. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a drug store to get the liquid Tylenol prescription filled. I knew I didn’t want to take it, but we wanted to have it on hand just in case. I never did end up taking any of it.
We got back to the hotel room and I wanted to lay down. Lemme tell you… laying down on a flat bed is ENTIRELY different than laying down in a hospital bed. Getting comfortable took about 6 pillows and didn’t last. We tried to rent a recliner (which is what I would recommend to anyone out there waiting to have the surgery)… but the soonest they could get it to us would be the day we were leaving. Sigh… Oh well.
This was the day I was originally going to be released from the hospital. They started me on soft foods in the morning. I had half an ounce of scrambled eggs in the morning. Dr. Wongsa wants his patients to eat mostly protein, then vegetables, then fruit (in that order of importance). A half ounce of food 3 times per day. That’s it. Sounds incredibly small. You wouldn’t believe how full you can get off a half ounce of food! How small is a half ounce, you ask? You know those medicine cups on Pepto Bismol? HALF of that. 
Amazing. Later that day, the stupid cafeteria workers actually brought me lasagna, salad and chocolate cake! My husband FREAKED! He took it out to the nurse’s station… “SHE CAN’T EAT THIS!” They sent up some chicken salad instead. But get this… the lady next to me got her tray of liquids that day. She started eating the popscicle! I told her that we were not supposed to have sugar, and you need to watch what the cafeteria brings you. We started discussing how you shouldn’t have to second guess what the cafeteria brings you. You think you’d be on a Doctor’s prescribed diet. How odd is that?
By that night I was doing well taking care of myself. Luckily so, since I wouldn’t have anyone there to help me. I had the hardest time sleeping through the night. The lady next to me didn’t, though. And the funny thing was that I was walking ALL THE TIME. She walked ONCE. You’d think I would be tired from all the exercise I was getting. She never had to pee in the night either. I was thinking she was not doing well at all. Not peeing enough and not walking at all. Tisk. Tisk.
They took my PCA pump away!!! Nooooo!!! Now if I needed any pain meds, they wanted to give me liquid tylenol with codine. I begged them not to give me that. All I can remember about that stuff was when I had my tonsils out. It made me barf so bad! Dr. Wongsa came in to visit me before he had another surgery. He said that the woman he operated on would be staying with me. Total bummer! That meant that I wouldn’t get to have my husband stay with me that night. 
Dr. Wongsa lectured me during this visit. He said that my liver was enlarged due to my eating too many carbs. He said that he had told me not to eat any carbs 2-3 months before the surgery. Once again, my husband is my witness, I was never told that. He said that I was probably in much more pain than I should have been because the surgery was much more difficult. They have to lift your liver in order to get to the organs they’re operating on… and the more fatty of a liver you have, the more difficult this becomes. He proceeded to let me know that he was worried I was not committed enough to do what I was supposed to do now that I had had the surgery. I promised him that I would do everything I was supposed to. I would show him. I was bound and determined to succeed at this!
They had me on liquids this day. They told me to have 1 oz of liquid every 2 hours. I couldn’t do it. I probably had a total of 6 ounces all day. I had some apple juice… some chicken broth… and later in the day they brought me some sugar-free jello. Can you believe they put a regular popscicle on the tray! Those big dummies! Us RNY patients can’t have sugar!!! I just left it on the tray. Or did my husband eat it? I can’t remember…
Later that day, they brought in the other lady who had her surgery earlier that morning. She was not handling the morphine well at all. It was making her super nauseated. They had to take her off of the PCA pump shortly after her arriving to our room. It was so difficult being in a room with another patient. She had like 5 family members / friends who wanted to be with her. And I had two. That made for one VERY crowded room. If you have this surgery, I would recommend trying to get a private room if there is any way possible.
That evening, when Dr. Wongsa came in to check on us both, he advised me that he was going to keep me in the hospital an extra day. Since we were going to be staying in a hotel anyway, and I had the enlarged liver, he wanted to keep on eye on me a little while longer.
